It’s coming round to haircut time again. I’ll put it off
until next week but that’s about the limit. Not my favourite chore but I seem
to have inherited a full head of hair from my father and the stuff just keeps
growing.
I’m not sure what I dislike most about going for a haircut
but I think part of it is the aimless waiting and trying to remember if it’s my
turn next. Ideally I’d like the place to be empty when I venture inside but I can’t
always arrange that.
As you may know, the Japanese have the word age-otori for looking worse
after a haircut. Must be handy every now and then. I’d have used it when my regular barber was closed and I carelessly popped into the barber's next to the undertaker. An old-fashioned place run by an old chap who seemed to specialise in short back and sides for anyone still capable of tottering through his door.
Crikey - never again. Definitely a case of age-otori.
As well as having no equivalent of age-otori, there must be many phantom words which would be useful in modern life but we don’t have them, or at least not in English. Or maybe we
do have them but they didn’t spring to mind as I wrote this post. For example -
That despairing contempt at the sight of supermarket
checkout magazines.
The nostalgic aura of motoring history evoked by a vintage
car interior.
An unsatisfactory aroma of yesterday’s fish as we walk
downstairs in the morning.
A momentary pang of annoyance as yet another piece of junk
mail goes in the bin
That defiant guilt when a plastic container is binned
instead of recycled.
That bigger job than I thought feeling as this list was being
compiled.
I wonder if life is less rich than it could be simply
because we haven’t sorted out enough words to encapsulate common modern frustrations,
emotions and dilemmas? If so, then what name might we give to worrying about
it?
6 comments:
"Logodearthangst".
I would not want to provide words for all those rich and subtle feelings. They just make us skate over the surface, pleased we have labelled something, and we would never look any deeper.
Mr H, I hope you will forgive me for publishing this link, when your subject had some airing a few years ago!
http://scroblene-webley-bullock.blogspot.co.uk/2008/05/new-word-description.html
I still get them too!
As for a haircut, it's every six weeks with a young lady who gives me a fabulous haircut (as her boss does to Mrs O'Blene, so there's no impropriety - chance would be a fine thing...), and I get all the news in a continuous stream of gossip rangeing from the benefits of SoCo and lemonade to the delicacies of chips with curry sauce.
I think for £9.00 and a tip, that's excellent value as she is also extremely well built and fit...!
I like your Six Feelings In Search Of A Dictionary Compiler.
We cut each others hair. It is quicker, cheaper and a lot more reliable.
That word age-otori and its matching concept, almost Proustian.
I had my haircut this afternoon. Mrs R did the deed and we talked of domestic matters and some precocious brat on the telly. But you are right, a haircut is a bore. Thankfully age-otori did not apply and I would not say if it did.
Sam - I see it going either way. The word could encourage deeper investigation or skating over the surface.
Scrobs - my young(ish) lady charges a fiver but she is too quick for much gossip.
Sackers - dictionaries seem too static these days. Not sure if that is a good thing though.
Demetrius - at the same time?
Roger - I used to cut my own hair, a dodgy enterprise at times but on the whole it worked.
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